AFRICA 


wcrinw 


issionarn 


PAMPHLET  No.  2. 


AFRICA: 


1 .  History  of  the  Mendi  Mission. 

Eev.  M.  M.  G.  Dana,  D.D. 

2.  The  Land :  Its  Products  and  its  People. 

Eev.  H.  M.  Scudder,  D.D. 

3.  Relation  of  the  Freedmen  to  Tropical  Africa. 

Eev.  G.  D.  Pike. 

4.  Claims  of  Africa  on  America. 

Eev.  M.  E.  Strieby,  D.D. 

5.  Mutual  Relation  of  England  and  America 

to  Africa. 

Eev.  L.  D.  Bevan,  D.D. 


Published  by  the  American  Missionary  Association, 
Office  56  Reade  Street, 


mentart 


xssutmarj 


PAMPHLET  No.  2. 


AFRICA: 


i.  History  of  the  Mendi  Mission. 

Rev.  M.  M.  G.  Dana,  D.D. 


2.  The  Land :  Its  Products  and  its  People. 

Rev.  H.  M.  Scudder,  D.D. 

3.  Relation  of  the  Freedmen  to  Tropical  Africa. 

Rev.  G.  D.  Pike. 


4.  Claims  of  Africa  on  America. 

Rev.  M.  E.  Striebt,  D.D. 


5.  Mutual  Relation  of  England  and  America 
to  Africa. 


Rev.  L.  D.  Bevan,  D.D. 


Published  by  the  American  Missionary  Association, 


Office  56  Reade  Street, 

18  7  8. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/africaOOunse 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 

MENDI  MISSION  IN  WESTERN  AFRICA. 


By  REV.  M.  M.  G.  DANA,  D.D.,  OF  ST.  PAUL,  MINNESOTA. 


There  are  comparatively  few  in  our  land,  we  suspect,  who 
are  acquainted  with  the  origin  of  this  Association’s  mission 
in  Western  Africa.  With  the  hope  of  arousing  such  a  new 
popular  interest  in  .that  continent  as  will  enable  it  to  prose¬ 
cute  its  work  on  an  immediately  enlarged  scale,  we  open  a 
few  pages  of  this  stirring  chapter  in  its  history. 

THE  AMISTAD  CAPTIVES. 

On  the  26th  of  August,  1839,  Lieutenant  Gedney,  of  the 
United  States  Navy,  captured,  off  the  east  end  of  Long 
Island,  a  Spanish  slaver,  called  the  “Amistad.”  On  hoard 
were  found  forty-two  Africans,  viz.,  thirty-eight  youths  and 
men,  three  girls  and  one  boy,  together  with  two  Spaniards, 
Pedro  Montez  and  Jose  Ruis,  one  of  whom  claimed  to  be 
the  owner  of  the  vessel  and  of  its  living  freight,  and  ap¬ 
pealed  to  Lieutenant  Gedney  for  protection. 

The  schooner  was  brought  into  port  at  New  London, 
and  after  an  examination  of  the  case  by  Judge  Judson,  of 
the  United  States  District  Court,  the  Africans  were  com¬ 
mitted  to  jail  on  the  charge  of  murder  on  the  high  seas. 
The  trial  was  set  down  for  September  17,  1839,  at  the  Cir- 


4 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


cuit  Court  to  be  held  in  Hartford.  The  affair  at  once 
created  no  small  stir  among  the  ranks  of  anti-slavery  men. 
The  latter  had  already  begun  their  agitation  of  the  subject 
of  American  slavery,  and  were  not  in  a  mood  to  stand  by 
and  see  these  Africans  remanded  to  servitude,  or  condemned 
for  rising  up  against  their  masters  to  regain  their  liberty. 

Accordingly,  at  a  meeting  of  the  friends  of  freedom,  held 
in  New  York,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  solicit  sub¬ 
scriptions,  employ  counsel,  and  do  whatever  was  possible  to 
secure  the  liberation  of  the  Africans.  It  was  a  somewhat 
singular  incident  that  from  a  British-armed  brig,  then 
lying  at  New  York,  a  native  African  interpreter  was  se¬ 
cured,  and  with  his  help  the  Rev.  Mr.  Raymond  was  desig¬ 
nated  to  instruct  the  captives. 

Among  the  latter  was  found  almost  every  type  of  the 
African  race.  Some  were  imbruted  and  repulsive  in  their 
looks ;  others  intelligent,  pleasing  in  appearance,  and,  as 
subsequent  events  proved,  capable  of  commendable  moral 
and  mental  attainments. 

On  the  one  side  were  arrayed  the  two  Spanish  officers, 
the  Spanish  Minister  at  Washington,  and  the  United  States 
Government,  uniting  in  their  efforts  to  have  the  Africans 
delivered  over  to  the  Spanish  authorities.  On  the  other 
was  the  counsel  for  the  slaves,  backed  by  the  anti-slavery 
opinion  of  the  North,  opposing  any  such  measure. 

After  protracted  litigation,  the  case  on  appeal  was  finally 
argued  by  Hon.  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Hon.  RogerS. 
Baldwin,  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States; 
and  on  the  9th  of  March,  1841,  the  former  communicated 
to  Lewis  Tappan,  a  member  of  the  above  committee,  the 
result  of  the  legal  efforts  in  these  words  :  “  The  captives 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


0 


are  free!  The  part  of  the  decree  of  the  District  Court, 
which  placed  them  at  the  disposal  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  to  be  sent  to  Africa,  is  reversed.  They  are 
to  he  discharged  from  the  custody  of  the  marshal,  free. 
The  rest  of  the  decision  of  the  courts  below  is  affiimed. 
‘  Not  unto  us,  not  unto  us,’  etc. ;  but  thanks,  thanks,  in  the 
name  of  humanity  and  of  justice,  to  you.” 

It  was  now  decided  by  the  friends  to  whom  the  freedom 
of  these  late  captives  was  due,  to  send  them  back  to  Africa, 
and  with  the  funds  in  the  Amistad  Committee’s  hands  to 
establish  a  mission  in  that  country.  This  committee  was 
merged  into  the  Union  Missionary  Society,  the  sixth  article 
of  its  constitution  giving  the  clue  to  the  character  and  aim 
of  the  organization — that  it  would  “  discountenance  slavery, 
and  refuse  the  fruits  of  unrequited  labor.”  This  society, 
together  with  two  other  kindred  ones,  subsequently  united 
to  form  the  American  Missionary  Association. 

RETURN  TO  AFRICA. 

A  public  farewell  meeting  was  held  in  the  Broadway 
Tabernacle,  New  York,  Sabbath  evening,  November  27, 
1841,  when  instructions  were  given  by  Bev.  S.  S.  Jocelyn  to 
the  missionaries  under  appointment,  viz.,  Bev.  James  Steele, 
Bev.  William  Baymond,  and  Mrs.  Baymond,  and  parting 
counsels  were  delivered  to  the  liberated  Africans,  some  of 
whom  took  part  in  the  services.  After  a  long  passage,  of 
some  eighty  days,  the  party  landed  at  Freetown,  in  the 
colony  of  Sierra  Leone,  January  15,  1842.  All  their  stores, 
tools  and  implements  of  agriculture  were  admitted  by  Gov¬ 
ernor  Ferguson  free  of  duty,  and  all  needed  assistance  was 
most  generously  proffered. 


6 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


THE  MISSION  LOCATED. 

The  impracticability  of  reaching  the  Mendi  country,  to¬ 
gether  with  the  fact  that  some  of  the  “A  mis  tad”  captives  be¬ 
longed  to  the  Sherbro  country,  led,  after  some  delay,  to 
the  selection  of  a  site  on  Little  Boom  river,  150  miles 
south-east  of  Sierra  Leone,  and  some  forty  miles  from  the 
coast,  near  the  village  called  Kaw  Mendi.  On  their  arrival 
here,  the  king,  Henry  Tucker,  ordered  a  salute  to  be  fired 
as  a  token  of  joy,  and  a  multitude  of  men,  women  and 
children  flocked  about  the  new-comers,  interested  most  of 
all  in  Mrs.  Raymond,  the  first  white  woman  ever  seen.  On 
the  Lord’s  day,  Mr.  Raymond  held  a  religious  service,  which 
the  king  attended,  seeming  to  be  much  impressed. 

EARLY  YEARS  OF  THE  MISSION. 

In  1845,  a  terrible  war  broke  out  in  the  Sherbro  country 
and  continued  several  years.  Many  towns  were  burned,  and 
hundreds  fled  to  the  mission  for  protection,  which,  even 
amid  these  unfavorable  circumstances,  exerted  a  powerful 
influence  for  good.  The  persons  and  property  of  all  con¬ 
nected  with  it  were  respected,  while  its  character  as  a  place 
of  freedom,  peace  and  temperance,  was  known  far  and  wide. 
The  mission  school  was  sustained  at  great  expense,  for 
famine  followed  in  the  wake  of  war.  Mr.  Raymond  re¬ 
deemed  a  large  number  of  children  from  bondage,  and  thus 
saved  them  from  slavery  or  death.  One  of  the  English 
missionaries  at  Sierra  Leone,  Rev.  Henry  Badger,  wrote  to 
a  member  of  the  committee :  “  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a 

mission  being  strengthened  in  the  midst  of  war  ?  Here  is 
one,  and  it  has  advanced  during  the  war  more  than  pre¬ 
viously.  A  school  has  been  formed  and  is  doing  well.  The 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


7 


mission  establishment,  at  first  regarded  with  suspicion,  is 
now  looked  upon  with  great  respect.  It  is  a  sanctuary ; 
and  while  other  towns  and  places  are  consumed  by  fire, 
and  their  inhabitants  destroyed  by  the  sword,  or  carried 
into  slavery,  this  flourishes  and  improves.” 

PROGRESS  OF  THE  MISSION. 

The  mission  kept  enlarging  its  operations  ,  new  buildings 
were  put  up,  and  the  number  of  scholars  in  the  mission 
school  constantly  increased.  Miss  Hamden  was  the  first 
to  join  it,  reaching  there  in  1843,  in  company  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Raymond,  who  had  returned  for  a  visit  to  the  United 
States.  Meanwhile,  Thomas  Bunyan,  a  converted  Mendian, 
who  had  previously  acted  as  an  interpreter  and  teacher, 
had  become  an  efficient  helper.  In  February,  1847,  Mr. 
Gfarnick,  an  Englishman,  who  had  been  some  years  in  this 
country,  joined  the  mission;  but  his  career  was  early  cut 
short  by  death — July  10,  1847.  Under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  Raymond,  who  was  a  man  of  rare  capacity  for  his  work, 
and  had  gained  a  wide  influence  among  the  people,  the 
mission  had  made  great  progress.  He  had  a  broad  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  kind  of  mission  needed  in  that  country,  and 
had,  from  the  start,  mechanical  and  agricultural  depart¬ 
ments  connected  with  it.  All  this  increased  its  expensive¬ 
ness  ;  but  the  decided  opinion  of  those  now  most  conver¬ 
sant  with  the  needs  of  Africa,  is,  that  only  a  mission  thus 
arranged  can  become,  in  the  largest  sense,  successful. 

CHANGES  AND  REINFORCEMENTS. 

By  Mr.  Raymond’s  death,  November  26,  1847,  the  mis¬ 
sion  lost  its  leading  spirit — one  who  had  wisely  shaped  its 


8 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


development  thus  far,  who  was  an  enthusiast  in  his  work, 
and  eminently  fitted  for  his  place.  Mr.  Bunyan  was  left 
in  charge  until  the  first  reinforcements  arrived  from  the 
United  States,  in  the  persons  of  Bev.  George  Thompson  and 
Anson  J.  Carter,  who  reached  Kaw  Mendi  July,  1848.  They 
were  received  with  every  expression  of  joy,  though  coming 
in  the  midst  of  war  and  famine.  Mr.  Carter  died  eight 
days  after  he  reached  the  mission,  and  his  loss  was  most 
passionately  deplored  by  the  natives.  His  associate,  Mr. 
Thompson,  attributes  his  death  not  so  much  to  the  cli¬ 
mate,  as  to  causes  which  had  greatly  impaired  his  health, 
and  would  have  resulted  in  death  almost  anywhere  else. 
Under  Mr.  Thompson  the  mission  made  steady  progress, 
though  still  in  the  face  of  adverse  circumstances,  owing  to 
the  yet  continuing  war.  In  November,  1849,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Brooks  and  Miss  Sarah  Kinson  (Mar  Gru),  who  was 
one  of  the  Amistad  captives,  sailed  from  New  York  to 
join  the  mission.  Mrs.  Brooks  died  of  the  African  fever 
before  reaching  Kaw  Mendi. 


RESULTS  THUS  FAR. 

At  this  time,  the  Mission  Church,  which  was  organized 
in  1845,  numbered  forty  members.  Signs  of  increasing  re¬ 
ligious  interest  among  the  natives  encouraged  the  mission¬ 
aries.  One  woman  came  twelve  miles  to  hear  the  Gospel. 
She  had  cast  away  her  idols,  kept  the  Sabbath,  and  talked 
to  the  people  concerning  the  great  salvation.  A  whole 
town  came  out  on  the  side  of  Christ,  through  the  preaching 
of  one  who  invited  Mr.  Thompson  to  come  or  send  the 
Gospel.  The  people  gave  up  their  idols  to  three  native 
missionaries,  who  were  sent  among  them.  Arabic  Testa- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


9 


ments  were  called  for  at  Barmah,  a  town  visited  by  Mr. 
Thompson,  whose  king  was  a  strong  Mohammedan.  At 
Paw-Paw,  another  attractive  village,  the  natives  promised 
to  build  a  mission  chapel ;  while,  at  Gallinas,  Mr.  Thomp¬ 
son  was  anxious  to  place  a  teacher. 


END  OF  THE  WAR. 

The  war  which  had  now  been  raging  for  several  years, 
producing  great  Suffering  among  the  tribes  engaged  in  it, 
and  embarrassing  the  mission,  was  brought  to  a  close 
through  the  wise  and  persistent  efforts  of  Mr.  Thompson. 
He  was  chosen  umpire  by  the  contending  chiefs,  and  after 
repeated  and  wearying  excursions  to  interview  both  parties, 
he  at  length  succeeded.  It  was  a  trophy  to  the  wisdom 
and  influence  of  the  missionary,  and  a  prophecy  of  what 
can  yet  be  done  to  heal  the  sanguinary  strifes  which  are 
now  desolating  Africa.  Writing  concerning  this  grand 
achievement,  Mr.  Thompson  says,  ‘‘  The  people  are  no 
longer  stolen,  shot,  and  murdered,  but  now  they  trade, 
build  their  towns,  and  make  their  farms.  Already  there  is 
a  desire  for  the  Gospel,  for  living  teachers,  such  as  was 
never  known  before  in  this  country.”  In  extensive  expedi¬ 
tions  made  by  Mr.  Thompson  into  the  Mendi  country,  he 
witnessed  the  happy  effects  of  the  peace  he  had  been  in¬ 
strumental  in  securing.  As  he  journeyed  he  saw  warriors 
meeting  and  falling  on  each  other’s  necks;  chiefs,  who 
were  for  years  enemies,  and  had  sought  each  other’s  blood, 
now  shaking  hands,  and  embracing  with  all  the  affection  of 
long-separated  friends;  sisters,  wives  and  daughters,  long 
captives,  falling  into  each  other’s  arms  with  great  emotion, 
and  weeping  for  joy.  Now  a  chief’s  daughter  was  seeu 


10 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


running  to  embrace  her  father’s  feet,  then  a  wife  hastening 
to  welcome  her  husband  and  children,  and  entire  towns 
filled  with  the  cries  of  gladness.  Kings  and  people  met  him, 
eager  to  hear  him  preach,  and  congregations  could  be  gath¬ 
ered  at  the  shortest  notice.  On  his  second  expedition,  with 
Thomas  Bunyan  and  five  natives,  he  was  met  by  Braw,  chief 
of  the  Bompeks,  who  entered  into  an  agreement  with  him 
to  provide  him  a  mission  station,  build  him  a  chapel,  and 
do  whatever  was  in  his  power  to  facilitate  the  work  of  the 
missionaries.  Another  of  the  Amistad  band,  Kin-na,  had 
now  become  an  earnest  evangelist  among  his  countrymen. 
Better  days  seemed  at  hand,  and  the  way  was  opening  for 
more  extended  operations. 

Mr.  Brooks  was  left  in  charge  of  the  mission  when,  in 
September,  1850,  Mr.  Thompson  returned  to  the  United 
States,  to  recruit  his  health,  arouse  the  churches  here  to 
interest  themselves  in  African  missions,  and  secure  rein¬ 
forcements  for  his  field. 

ADDITIONS  TO  THE  MISSION — LOSSES  BY  DEATH. 

In  1851,  eight  missionaries  arrived  at  Sierra  Leone,  on 
their  way  to  join  the  Mendi  Mission — Rev.  Franklin 
L.  Arnold  and  wife,  Rev.  J.  Cutler  Telft  and  wife,  Mr. 
Samuel  Gray  (colored),  Mr.  William  C.  Brown,  Miss 
Hannah  More,  and  Miss  Joanna  Alden.  The  latter,  it  is 
sad  to  record,  died  at  the  Mission  House  in  Freetown,  on  the 
3d  of  March,  of  the  African  fever.  Mrs.  Minerva  Arnold  lived 
to  reach  Kaw  Mendi,  when  she,  too,  was  called  away,  June 
9,  1851,  and  on  the  day  following,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  B.  Tefft. 
Thus  in  a  short  time  three  of  the  recruiting  band,  so  much 
needed  by  the  mission,  gave  up  their  lives. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


11 


FURTHER  PROGRESS. 

The  year  1851,  which  'was  filled  with  such  bright  pros¬ 
pects  for  the  mission,  through  the  arriving  reinforcements, 
and  which  had  been  so  suddenly  overcast  by  successive  and 
swift-following  bereavements,  was,  in  fact,  the  transition 
year  of  the  mission.  Its  working  force  was  now  larger 
than  ever,  and  all  the  circumstances  seemed  to  combine  to 
facilitate  the  labors  of  the  missionaries.  Never  before  wras 
such  a  ready  hearing  accorded  the  Gospel  by  chiefs  and  their 
tribes. 

Explorations  were  made  into  the  interior,  and  a  better 
knowledge  obtained  of  the  field  to  be  occupied.  Already 
had  the  Association,  through  representations  received  from 
the  mission,  advised  the  establishment  of  a  new  station  at 
Tecongo,  some  hundreds  of  miles  up  the  Big  Boom  river. 
In  September,  1852,  Mr.  Tefft  received  fourteen  new  mem¬ 
bers  to  the  church,  and  reported  signs  of  increasing  religious 
interest  among  the  people.  At  Freetown,  the  natives 
gave  up  their  idol-worship,  devil-dresses,  etc. 

In  1853,  Mr.  D.  W.  Burton,  wife  and  child,  Rev.  Morris 
Officer,  Dr.  Thomas  G.  Cole,  Miss  Mahala  McGuire,  Miss 
M.  B.  Aldrich,  Miss  Louisa  Sexton,  joined  the  mission.  At 
this  time,  when  everything  promised  so  well,  war  broke  out 
again  in  the  surrounding  country.  Scenes  of  violence  and 
suffering,  such  as  are  the  inseparable  concomitants  of  these 
tribal  conflicts  in  Africa,  were  witnessed  by  Mr.  Brooks, 
who  did  his  utmost  to  maintain  peace.  He  was  now  con¬ 
vinced  that  the  establishment  of  mission  stations  would 
contribute  most  effectively  towards  this,  for  in  fact  nothing 
so  tends  to  preserve  peace  amid  jealous  chiefs  as  th,e  pres- 


12 


H1ST0KY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


ence  of  the  missionary.  He  is  an  umpire  to  whom  disputes 
can  be  referred,  and  is  the  one  party  whose  counsels  are 
both  wise  and  influential. 

EXTENSION  OF  THE  MISSION. 

Mr.  Brooks  accordingly  established  a  new  station  at  Tis- 
sana,  on  the  Big  Boom  river,  taking  with  him  as  helpers 
several  of  the  more  advanced  boys  from  his  school.  The 
location  was  central,  being  within  easy  reach  of  nearly 
twenty  towns,  some  of  which  were  large  and  important. 
This  was  the  first  attempt  to  go  any  great  distance  into  the 
interior,  and  confirmed  at  that  early  date,  what  recent 
explorers  and  travelers  have  settled,  that  the  highlands  to 
he  found  in  the  interior  of  Africa  are  perfectly  healthy, 
and  should  be  hereafter  chosen  as  the  sites  for  mission 
stations. 

The  next  advance  made  was  the  establishment,  in  1854, 
of  a  new  station  on  Sherbro  Island,  called  Good  Hope,  by 
Mr.  Thompson  and  Rev.  J.  Condit,  a  new  recruit.  A  large 
population  could  he  reached  from  this  post,  while  the  cli¬ 
mate  was  supposed  to  be  as  healthy  as  that  of  any  part  of 
Western  Africa. 

The  material  for  the  mission  house  was  sent  from  Ameri¬ 
ca,  and  work  in  this  field  opened  encouragingly.  At  Mo- 
Tappan  Mr.  Brooks  had  organized  a  church,  and  at  Bar- 
mah  Rev.  Mr.  Condit’s  preaching  was  attended  with  marked 
success.  It  was  a  sad  blow  to  the  mission  when  this  zeal¬ 
ous  laborer  died — April  24.  1854.  The  church  at  Kaw 
Mendi  had  now  increased  by  additions,  till  it  numbered,  in 
October,  1854,  upwards  of  ninety-six. 

The  following  January  Misses  Woolsey,  Winters,  and 


HISTORY  OP  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


13 


Teale  joined  the  mission,  and,  with  returning  mem¬ 
bers,  who  had  been  visiting  this  country,  made  the  force  of 
laborers  in  the  field  larger  than  ever.  There  had  been  thus 
far  established  the  stations  at  Kaw  Mendi,  Mo-Tappan, 
Good  Hope,  and  several  outposts,  where  schools  were 
carried  on  by  natives  educated  by  the  missionaries.  This 
year  we  note  the  arrival  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Lee.  It  now  be¬ 
came  evident  that  the  Kaw  Mendi  station  was  not  favorably 
situated  health  wise,  which  led  to  the  reduction  of  the  work 
there  and  the  distribution  of  the  missionaries  among  other 
healthier  stations.  In  1856,  Rev.  Mr.  Thompson,  after 
years  of  most  faithful  service,  retired  from  the  field  and 
severed  his  connection  with  the#Association.  During  this 
year  the  new  outpost  at  Salem  Hill,  a  little  below  the' Big 
Boom  station,  was  formed.  The  mission  was  kept  supplied 
with  new  laborers,  to  make  good  the  vacancies  occasioned 
by  death,  and  to  take  the  places  of  those  forced  temporari¬ 
ly  to  retire.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mair  and  Dr.  Witt  arrived  in 
1857,  the  former  dying  at  Freetown,  before  reaching  his 
field.  Miss  Sarah  G.  McIntosh  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Dowie, 
with  four  missionaries  from  two  other  societies,  joined 
the  Mendi  Mission  in  1858,  and  were  followed  by  Rev.  J. 
White  and  Richard  Miles.  The  former  was  assigned  to  Good 
Hope,  the  latter  became  an  assistant-teacher  to  Mr.  Brooks. 

The  death  of  Mrs.  Brooks,  who  was  a  most  efficient 
worker,  and  had  remarkable  success  in  the  management  of 
her  school,  was  a  severe  blow  to  the  mission.  The  starred 
names  on  the  list  of  missionaries  show  how  repeatedly  death 
visited  them.  Each  year  was  thus  flecked  with  sorrow, 
relieved  by  the  dearly-purchased  progress  which  cheered  the 
devoted  band  of  workers. 


14 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


RESULTS. 

Mr.  Jowett,  a  young  native,  and  Father  Johnson,  an  in¬ 
terpreter,  somewhat  advanced  in  years,  were  at  this  time 
ordained  to  preach  the  Gospel.  These  were  accessions  that 
promised  to  be  of  great  practical  service.  At  the  first  quar¬ 
terly  meeting  of  the  churches  connected  with  this  mission, 
held  July  2,  1859,  it  was  stated  that  within  the  last  two 
and  a  half  years  more  than  1,000  Mendi  words  had  been 
collected,  defined,  and  transmitted  to  writing,  a  primer  had 
been  compiled  and  forwarded  to  England  to  be  printed,  a 
translation  of  the  Gospels  commenced,  and  a  few  hymns 
composed.  At  the  beginning  of  the  following  year  Rev.  G. 
P.  Claflin,  Rev.  Charles  F.  Winship,  Rev.  J.  H.  Dodge,  and 
Mr.' Richard  Miles,  with  their  wives,  joined  the  mission. 
Mr.  Wm.  B.  Tucker,  a  promising  young  native,  who  had 
been  brought  up  and  educated  by  the  missionaries,  was 
licensed  to  preach  by  the  Mendi  Association. 

Meanwhile,  at  some  of  the  out-stations  much  good  had 
been  accomplished.  An  attractive  little  paper  was  pub¬ 
lished  every  month  at  the  mission,  called  The  Early  Dawn. 
The  entire  work  of  printing  was  done  by  the  boys  of  the 
mission  school,  and  the  sheet  was  designed  for  circulation 
among  the  English-speaking  Africans  and  such  others  as 
would  pay  for  it.  In  18G2,  Rev.  Mr.  Hinman,  who  had 
begun  printing  in  the  Slierbro  and  Mendi  languages,  ar¬ 
rived,  and  in  1863,  Rev.  E.  J.  Adams,  Mr.  S.  J.  Whiton, 
Mrs.  Hinman,  and  Miss  Danforth,  reached  Good  Hope  sta¬ 
tion.  With  the  Gospel  now*  in  part,  in  the  native  language 
there  was  great  eagerness  manifested  by  the  people  to  see 
and  read  it,  and  it  produced  a  great  impression.  The 
churches  received  additions  to  their  number  from  time  to 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


15 


time,  and  steady  progress  in  the  work  of  the  mission  was 
reported  at  all  the  stations. 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  AVERT  STATION. 

Avery  Station,  established  in  the  Bargroo  country,  in 
1859,  was  pronounced  by  Rev.  E.  P.  Smith,  who  was  sent 
out  in  1876  to  inspect  the  missions  of  the  Association,  as 
the  healthiest  in  location,  and,  because  of  the  peculiar 
industrial  features  introduced  by  Mr.  Burton,  one  of 
great  promise.  The  mission  now  owns  a  boat,  called  the 
“  Olive  Branch,”  which  is  exceedingly  useful  to  the  mission¬ 
aries,  and  is  another  of  those  serviceable  instrumentalities 
due  to  the  practical  sense  of  Mr.  Burton.  By  the  latter 
was  erected  here,  in  1866,  the  first  saw-mill  ever  known  in 
this  part  of  Africa — an  institution  which  has  already  paid 
for  itself,  and  is  regarded  as  a  most  useful  adjunct  of  the 
mission. 

REV.  BARNABAS  ROOT. 

In  1874,  Barnabas  Root,  a  native  of  the  Mendi  country, 
was  ordained  as  a  missionary,  and  sailed  for  Africa.  He  was 
a  child  of  the  mission  in  the  Sherbro  country,  and  came  to 
America  to  prepare  for  his  work  as  a  missionary  among 
his  people.  Graduating  at  Knox  College  and  Chicago 
Theological  Seminary,  he  returned  to  his  native  land  with 
every  promise  of  a  signally  useful  careeV;  but,  alter  a  short 
period  of  effective  labor,  he  died.  As  one  of  the  fruits  of 
the  Association’s  mission,  he  was,  despite  his  brief  life,  a 
witness  not  only  to  its  usefulness,  but  an  instance  of  what 
native  Africans  may  yet  become  as  preachers  and  teachers 
to  their  own  countrymen. 


16 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


SUMMARY. 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  history  of  this  Association’s  work  in 
Western  Africa.  From  1842  until  the  present  its  evangeli¬ 
cal  labors  in  this  far-off  land  have  been  prosecuted  with  an 
unflagging  zeal.  The  early  progress  of  the  mission  was 
embarrassed  and  restricted  by  the  outbreaking  of  a  native 
war,  already  referred  to.  Yet,  during  all  this  unpropitious 
period,  the  mission  exerted  a  powerful  influence.  From 
time  to  time,  reinforcements  were  sent  out,  and  the  mission 
work  grew  apace.  There  seemed  to  be,  on  the  part  of  some 
of  the  natives,  a  great  eagerness  to  listen  to  the  Gospel  story. 
The  personal  influence  of  some  of  the  missionaries  was 
most  successfully  felt  in  reconciling  hitherto  hostile  chiefs 
and  their  warring  tribes.  Expeditions  into  the  interior 
revealed  a  favorable  state  of  things  for  evangelistic  under¬ 
taking,  and  the  missionary  was  met  everywhere  with  marks 
of  confidence  and  good-will,  and  listened  to  by  large  con¬ 
gregations,  gathered  together  at  the  shortest  notice.  But 
while  these  and  other  tokens  of  progress  appeared  all  along 
in  the  history  of  the  mission,  its  losses  by  death  were  sadly 
frequent.  Some  died  before  reaching  the  field,  some  after 
a  feAV  months  of  labor,  while  even  those  A\rho  succeeded  in 
enduring  the  perils  of  the  climate  were  obliged  to  occasion¬ 
ally  return  home  to  this  land  for  rest,  and  to  recruit  their 
impaired  health.  do  not,  hoAvever,  mention  these  facts 
as  peculiar  to  this  Mendi  Mission.  The  same  sad  pathetic 
strain  mingles  in  the  history  of  every  mission  in  Africa. 
We  do  not  realize  how  much  the  Christian  heart  has  felt, 
how  much  achieved,  in  behalf  of  this  benighted  continent, 
until  the  number  of  those  Avho  have  consecrated  themselves 
to  its  Christianization  is  recalled. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


17 


There  are  missionary  graves  in  that  sorrow-stricken  land, 
around  which,  in  thought,  we  cannot  but  pause,  as  the 
tender  and  thrilling  memories  they  suggest  come  back  to 
us.  Here  are 

“  Tears  more  eloquent  than  learned  tongue, 

Or  lyre  of  purest  note.” 

To  no  other  field  in  the  realm  of  heathendom  have  more 
gifted  missionaries  gone  forth ;  and,  though  it  is  unutterably 
sad  to  think  how  many  of  them  fell  before  doing  aught  to 
realize  the  holy  purpose  that  brought  them  thither,  yet  we 
cannot  believe  that  all  this  sacrifice  of  valuable  life  has  been 
in  vain.  The  seed  of  the  Church  is  in  that  far-off  land,  and 
amid  those  graves — elocpient  witnesses  of  Christian  heroism 
and  faith — may  we  exclaim  :  “  The  noble  army  of  martyrs 
praise  Thee !  ” 

The  Association  has  sent  out,  during  this  period  of  thirty- 
five  years,  nearly  fifty  missionaries.  These  have  labored 
with  varying  success,  and  for  longer  or  shorter  terms.  In 
addition  to  the  first  station,  near  Kaw  Mendi,  where  a 
church  was  organized  in  1845,  and  flourishing  schools  were 
established,  Good  Hope  Station,  on  the  north-east  side  of 
Sherbro  Island,  was  occupied  in  1853,  also  Mo-Tappan,  at 
the  falls  of  the  Big  Boom  river,  forty  miles  East  of  Kaw 
Mendi.  Salem  Hill  Station  was  formed  in  1856.  Avery 
Station — so  named  in  commemoration  of  the  generous  en¬ 
dowment  of  this  mission,  to  the  amount  of  1100,000,  by 
Bev.  Charles  Avery — one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  south¬ 
east  of  Freetown,  on  the  Bargroo  river,  and  contiguous 
to  the  country  occupied  by  the  Mendi  people,  was  opened 
in  1859.  Other  points  were  occupied  as  preaching  stations, 
some  of  which  were  centres  of  considerable  importance.  In 


18 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MEHDI  MISSIONS 


addition  to  these  more  distinctively  evangelistic  efforts, 
portions  of  tlie  Scripture  have  been  translated  into  the 
Mendi  language,  together  with  a  primer  and  a  few  hymns. 
The  Kaw  Mendi  Station  had  practically  to  be  abandoned 
on  account  of  its  unhealthiness,  though  this  step  was  not 
taken  till  after  years  of  afflictive  experience,  which  con¬ 
vinced  all  that  it  was  a  necessity. 

The  history  of  this  Mendi  Mission,  as  a  whole,  is  not  a 
cheerful  one  to  contemplate,  nor  has  as  much  been  accom¬ 
plished  as,  perhaps,  its  projectors  or  friends  hoped  for.  We 
cannot  but  grieve  over  the  precious  lives  this  mission  has 
cost,  and  at  the  meagre  outcome  of  these  heroic  labors.  Yet 
certain  we  are  that  the  story  of  the  Mendi  Mission  presents 
the  record  of  as  noble  self-denying  work  as  can  be  found 
anywhere  in  the  missionary  annals  of  the  Church.  We  are, 
however,  only  the  more  convinced,  not  only  by  the  story 
of  this  undertaking,  but  by  that  of  every  other  coast  mis¬ 
sion,  that  the  problem  of  African  civilization  is  for  the 
missionaries  of  the  future. 

OUR  DUTY, 

In  closing  this  History  of  the  Mendi  Mission,  Dr.  Dana  suggests  to 
the  friends  of  Africa  some  practical  lessons  resulting  from  the 
missionary  experience  of  these  past  years.  We  give  only  the  points. 

I.  The  time  seems  to  have  come  wThen  the  missionary 
operations  on  the  sea-coast,  with  its  malarial  surround¬ 
ings,  must  yield  in  importance  to  those  that  now  can  be 
prosecuted  in  the  healthy  regions  of  the  interior. 

II.  But  pre-eminently  does  it  behoove  this  Association 
to  avail  itself  of  the  providentially-fitted  agents  for  this 
work  of  Christianizing  Africa — the  Freedmen  of  America. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


19 


III.  Finally,  the  new  emigration  movement,  on  the  part 
of  the  freedmen,  should  give  additional  importance  to  the 
work  of  Christianizing  Africa. 

And  now,  with  added  emphasis,  comes  home  to  this  As¬ 
sociation  the  inquiry  as  to  what  part  it  will  bear  in  this  great 
undertaking.  This  question  is  for  its  friends  and  patrons 
to  answer;  it  is  one,  too,  which  concerns  our  educated 
freedmen.  With  a  work  so  radiant  with  promise  open¬ 
ing  before  us,  let  us  not  be  found  halting.  Let  Chris¬ 
tian  America,  through  this  Board,  make  its  response  to 
the  appeal  of  the  millions  of  that  ancient  land,  whose 
conversion  to  Christ  seems  like  the  consummating  possi¬ 
bility  of  missionary  enterprise. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  HISTORY. 


It  is  fitting  that  this  History  of  the  Mendi  Mission  should  be  continued 

to  the  latest  date. 

At  the  Annual  Meeting  in  1876,  the  Executive  Com¬ 
mittee  advised  that  the  effort  be  made  to  secure  the  services 
of  competent  men,  of  African  descent,  from  among  the 
freedmen  of  the  South,  educated  in  our  institutions,  to  go 
out  to  this  land  of  their  fathers  and  carry  on  the  mission. 
The  suggestion  met  with  favor,  and  was  endorsed  by  the 
Society.  After  patient  search,  the  men  were  found — Bev. 
Floyd  Snelson,  Benjamin  James,  M.  D.,  and  A.  E.  White, 
graduates  of  Atlanta,  Howard  and  Hampton — a  minister,  a 
physician,  and  a  teacher.  After  several  weeks  of  careful 


20 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MENDI  MISSION. 


preparation  and  instruction  in  New  York,  they  sailed — two 
of  them  with  wives  and  children,  eleven  souls  in  all — Sept. 
23d,  1S77,  arriving  at  their  station  Nov.  30th,  and  at  once 
vigorously  beginning  work. 

But  the  mission  was  still  weak  in  numbers,  and  was 
made  weaker  by  the  withdrawal  of  one  or  two  of  the 
missionary  assistants,  who  had  been  holding  the  fort  until 
the  new  force  should  arrive.  It  was  thought  wise  speedily 
to  send  more  recruits.  Volunteers  were  not  wanting.  In 
response  to  a  general  call,  read  Feb.  1st,  at  Fisk  University, 
in  Nashville.,  Tenn.,  Albert  Miller  and  Andrew  Jackson 
olfered  themselves  for  this  foreign  service,  and  were  ac¬ 
cepted,  as  evidently  qualified  for  the  important  work. 
They  were  both  engaged  to  be  married  to  estimable  young 
women,  who  had  experience  as  teachers,  and  were  gifted  in 
song,  and  who  also  were  willing  to  go  to  Africa.  On  the 
23d  of  February,  1878,  exactly  five  months  after  the  pre¬ 
ceding  party,  these  four  were  sent  out  to  join  their  brethren 
already  in  the  field.  On  their  -arrival,  there  will  be  nine 
adults  and  six  children  in  the  mission,  of  African  descent, 
born  in  America,  educated  since  the  wrar  in  institutions 
connected  with  the  Association — freedmen  and  women, 
carrying  the  Gospel  of  light  and  liberty  to  those  in  the 
bondage  of  sin  and  superstition. 


THE  LAND,  THE  PRODUCTS  AND 
THE  PEOPLE. 


By  EEV.  HENKY  M.  SCUDDER,  D.D.,  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 


So  significant  an  event  as  the  setting  forth  for  Africa  of  the  first 
colored  missionaries,  born  and  educated  in  this  land,  was  worthy  a 
special  recognition.  A  farewell  meeting,  and  a  service  for  the  conse¬ 
cration  of  these  missionaries  to  their  work,  was  held  on  the  evening 
before  their  departure,  Sunday,  September  23d,  1877,  in  the  Central 
Congregational  Church  of  Brooklyn.  The  missionaries,  with  their 
families,  were  seated  in  front  of  the  platform.  The  sermon  was 
preached  by  the  Rev.  Henry  M.  Scudder,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the  church, 
himself  once  a  missionary,  and  of  a  family  which  had  in  three  succes¬ 
sive  generations  been  eminent  in  that  service.  This  discourse  was 
replete  with  interest  and  information. 

After  rapidly  sketching  the  hardships  and  heroism  of  Mungo  Park, 
Richardson,  Speke,  Schweinfurth,  Baker,  Livingstone  and  Stanley,  and 
acknowledging  the  world’s  indebtedness  to  them  for  the  stores  of  in¬ 
formation  which  they  had  brought  to  its  knowledge,  the  doctor  said  : 

In  regard  to  the  physical  features  of  this  wonderful 
country,  it  is  now  known  to  he  one  of  the  most  fertile, 
productive  and  beautiful  in  the  world.  It  is  true  there  are 
great  deserts  there,  but  there  are  also  great  lakes  and 
mighty  rivers,  and  fertile  plains,  and  beautiful  forests,  and 
lofty  mountains.  There  is  Lake  Tanganyika,  300  miles  in 
length  and  forty  in  width,  and  Victoria  Nyanza,  and  Albert 
Nyanza,  the  latter  of  which  Baker  thought  was  the  source  of 

21 


22 


LAND,  PRODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE. 


the  Nile.  We  now  know  that  the  Nile  is  3,400  miles  long, 
and  the  Congo,  from  one  to  five  miles  wide,  flowing  from  the 
great  lakes  on  the  eastern  coast.  There  are  the  Zambesi 
and  Lnalaba  rivers,  and  in  the  valley  through  which  the 
Niger  flows,  grass  grows  twelve  feet  high,  and  as  large 
round  as  the  thumb  of  a  man.  We  have  also  learned  some¬ 
thing  about  the  Delta  of  the  Zambesi.  Baker  says  that 
sugar  enough  can  be  grown  there  to  supply  all  the  world. 
Then,  there  are  the  waterfalls  in  that  wonderful  country, 
which,  though  not  so  great  as  our  own  Niagara,  perhaps, 
may  be  said  to  surpass  it  in  beauty;  at  the  Victoria  Falls, 
on  the  Zambesi  river,  there  are  five  great  columns  of 
vapor  hanging  over  the  water,  like  the  pillar  of  cloud,  that, 
in  the  olden  days,  rested  on  the  Holy  Mountain. 

I  will  now  pass  these  features  aud  go  on  to  speak  of  the 
'productions  of  this  land,  where  such  wonderful  and  beau¬ 
tiful  things  are  seen.  We  shall  find  that  in  it  there  grows 
everything  that  is  necessary  to  supply  the  wants  of  man 
— wheat,  rice,  maize,  cotton,  sugar,  coffee,  tobacco,  dates, 
yams,  plums,  pomegranates,  grapes  and  figs ;  but  it  would 
take  too  long  to  enumerate  all  the  productions  of  that  coun¬ 
try.  It  has,  too,  some  of  the  largest  trees  in  the  world ;  they 
may  not  be  quite  so  large  as  ours  in  California,  but  their 
size  is  something  wonderful,  for  we  read  of  one  that, 
by  actual  measurement,  was  found  to  be  112  feet  in 
circumference.  Then  there  is  what  is  called  the  “Te- 
wakey  Tree,”  from  which  the  natives  extract  a  very 
pleasant  beverage,  and  the  wood  of  which  is  so  hard 
that  Livingstone  said,  “You  cannot  cut  it  down.”  You 
may  cut  at  it  and  burn  it  and  the  tree  will  still  stand. 
Then  there  is  the  “  Malevolent  Plant,”  with  its  thorns  that 


LAND,  PRODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE.  23 

are  hooks — “  wait-a-bit  ”  thorns,  which  catch  hold  of  every¬ 
thing  within  their  reach  and  tear  it  to  shreds.  In  the  for¬ 
ests  grows  a  plant  with  a  red  sap,  into  which  the  natives 
dip  a  little  arrow,  and  the  slightest  scratch  from  that  poi¬ 
soned  dart  results  in  certain  death  to  man  or  beast. 

Passing  onward  and  upward,  as  you  perceive,  we  come  by 
a  regular  gradation  from  the  flora  to  the  fauna  of  the 
country.  This  is  represented  by  the  rhinoceros,  elephant, 
hippopotamus,  leopard,  giraffe,  zebra,  lion,  camel,  gazelle 
and  antelope.  From  the  skins  of  many  of  these  animals  the 
natives  make  a  shelter  more  impervious  than  from  that  of  any 
other  substance  I  know.  Then  there  is  the  ostrich,  a  silly 
bird,  which,  when  pursued,  can  travel  at  the  rate  of  twenty- 
six  miles  an  hour,  and  moves  so  fast  that  you  cannot  see  its 
legs  more  than  you  see  the  rails  in  a  fence  when  you  are  being 
carried  rapidly  forward  on  the  cars.  The  forests  there  are 
the  homes  of  the  gorilla,  that  fierce  animal,  with  arms  so 
strong  that  it  is  capable  of  tearing  down  trees  eighteen 
inches  in  circumference ;  and  it  may  be,  [perhaps,  a  comfort 
to  those  who  are  vegetarians  to  know  that  this  strong 
animal  subsists  entirely  on  vegetable  diet,  and  never  eats 
men.  There  is  also  the  buffalo,  which  is  more  to  be  dreaded 
than  the  lion,  so  these  travelers  tell  us.  We  must  not  forget, 
while  on  this  subject,  that  the  rivers  swarm  with  alli¬ 
gators  and  crocodiles,  and  that  though  many  fierce  and  ter¬ 
rible  animals  roam  through  the  forests,  they  also  abound 
with  many  that  are  harmless  and  beautiful.  There  the 
hunter  can  find  the  antelope,  the  deer  and  the  gazelle,  and 
a  curious  and  odd  animal,  called  the  gnu,  which  has  shoul¬ 
ders  like  a  horse,  a  head  like  an  ox,  and  legs  and  feet  like  a 
stag.  In  the  woods  is  a  curious  bird  called  the  “  Honey 


24 


LAND,  PRODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE. 


Guide/’  which  sits  on  a  tree  and  calls  to  travelers,  and 
when  it  is  answered,  leads  them  to  stores  of  honey,  of 
which  the  bird  always  expects  a  share. 

They  have  more  venomous  reptiles  there  than  anywhere 
else.  One  is  the  tsetse,  which  is  no  larger  than  a  house¬ 
fly,  but  its  sting  is  certain  death  to  all  domestic  animals ; 
wild  animals  they  never  bite.  There  is  one  animal  that  it 
does  not  molest,  and  that  is  the  donkey ;  and  man,  too,  is 
exempt  from  its  bite.  They  have  there  a  strange  thing,  a 
little  caterpillar,  the  entrails  of  which  the  native  takes  out, 
and  after  drying  in  the  sun,  winds  upon  his  arrows,  with 
which  he  shoots  lions.  They  are  certain  death  to  those 
animals;  and,  if  they  touch  man,  they  drive  him  mad. 

Now  we  will  go  a  step  further  and  consider  man.  There 
are  one  hundred  and  twenty  milMons  of  people  in  Africa, 
and  they  present  the  most  amusing  contrasts.  There 
are  men  large,  stalwart  and  splendidly  formed.  Then, 
again,  there  are  pigmies,  and  some  have  been  discovered 
who  were  only  four  feet  ten  inches  in  height;  and,  again, 
there  are  ugly  and  repulsive  men,  and  others  who  are  very 
handsome,  with  small  hands  and  feet — signs,  generally  con¬ 
sidered,  of  aristocratic  descent ;  and  there  are  women  with 
delicate  and  refined  features,  and  fine,  beautiful  forms.  Then 
you  find  the  same  contrasts  in  their  minds  that  you  do  in 
their  persons.  Some  are  highly  intelligent.  Bishop  McKen¬ 
zie,  who  went  out  there  to  form  a  University  Mission,  says, 
“  I  was  sent  out  to  teach  these  people  agriculture,  but  I  find 
they  know  a  great  deal  more  about  it  than  I  do.”  Then 
there  are  men  who  have  appetites  like  the  wild  beasts,  and 
their  looks,  as  they  eye  the  missionaries,  say,  “  How  I 
would  like  to  eat  you ;  if  I  could  get  a  slice  out  of  you  I 


LAND,  PRODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE. 


25 


would  like  a  boil  or  a  broil.”  In  some  places  they  take  care 
of  the  graveyards,  which  is  one  sign  of  civilization.  Then, 
again,  some  burrow  in  holes,  and  Moffat  saw  people  who 
lived  in  trees.  In  one  of  their  dwellings  he  found  the  en¬ 
tire  contents  to  be  one  spoon,  one  spear  and  a  panful  of 
locusts,  and  he  says,  “  I  was  so  hungry  I  ate  the  locusts  all 
up.”  The  food  of  some  of  these  people  consists  of  rats  and 
mice.  Some  clothe  themselves  with  care  and  taste,  and 
others  do  not  clothe  themselves  at  all.  In  some  parts  the 
men  clothe  themselves  and  the  women  do  not ;  in  others, 
the  women  do  and  the  men  do  not ;  and  in  others,  neither 
the  men  nor  the  women  wear  any  clothing.  Some  of  them 
swear  by  the  tears  of  their  mothers,  while  others  expose 
their  mothers,  and  leave  them  to  perish.  There  is  one  tribe 
where  the  women  are  .independent,  and  the  doctrine  of 
women’s  rights  is  rigidly  maintained  ;  and,  if  one  of  the  men 
of  that  tribe  is  asked  a  question,  he  will  very  likely  answer, 
“  Go  to  my  wife,  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.”  Living¬ 
stone  tells  us  of  such  a  tribe,  where  he  tried  to  purchase  a 
goat  from  one  of  the  men,  and  his  wife  interfered,  saying, 
“  You  are  going  to  sell  that  goat,  are  you?  You  had  better 
let  it  alone,  you  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.”  Livingstone 
tried,  but  in  vain,  to  persuade  the  man  to  exert  his  right. 
In  some  tribes  the  women  do  all  the  work  ;  they  build  the 
house,  till  the  ground,  cook  the  food,  and  bear  children, 
while  the  men  sit  around  and  smoke  and  gossip. 

Then  there  is  no  other  country  in  which  there  are  such 
extraordinary  customs  as  in  Africa.  A  traveler  tells  us  that, 
on  entering  one  of  their  villages,  all  the  men  threw  them¬ 
selves  upon  their  backs,  kicked  up  their  heels,  and  slapped 
their  sides — that  was  the  way  in  which  they  saluted  him. 

.  2 


26 


LAND,  PEODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE. 


In  another  tribe  they  smear  themselves  all  over  with  butter, 
and  in  another  each  man  will  train  game  cocks,  and  the 
man  whose  birds  are  killed  has  his  house  burned  down. 
Blood  drinking  prevails  in  some  of  the  tribes,  in  others 
they  file  their  teeth,  and  when  they  laugh  we  are  told  they 
look  like  “  grinning  alligators”;  but,  they  not  only  file 
them,  they  also  blacken  them,  and  that  adds  to  their  for¬ 
bidding  appearance.  In  dressing  their  hair,  some  of  them 
do  it  in  the  form  of  a  beaver’s  tail,  and  others  like  a  helmet, 
and  some  of  the  women  spread  it  out  like  a  radai,  and  if  it 
were  fashionable,  I  suppose,  some  of  you  would  do  it. 
Among  the  Lutookas,  it  takes  from  eight  to  ten  years  to 
train  the  hair,  which  is  formed  in  the  shape  of  a  helmet, 
and  is  only  done  once  in  a  lifetime.  Many  women  are 
found  wearing  rings  and  anklets,  and  it  is  not  an  uncom¬ 
mon  thing  to  see  such  ornaments,  weighing  as  much  as 
thirty  pounds,  on  some  women.  One  most  disgusting  thing 
they  do  is  for  the  women  to  get  an  aperture  made  in  the 
upper  lip  and  put  in  it  a  round  disc  of  wood  until  the  lip 
projects  two  inches  beyond  the  nose — some  of  them  do  it 
to  the  upper  lip  and  some  to  the  lower.  Some,  too,  put 
copper  traps  on  their  lips — a  practice  which  I  don’t  think 
deserves  universal  condemnation.  In  another  part  of  the 
country  the  people  fatten  their  women.  Mr.  Speke  saw  a 
woman  who  was  five  feet  eight /inches  high,  but  she 
was  bigger  round  the  arm  than  some  of  you  are  round  the 
waist.  He  also  tells  us  he  saw  a  young  lady  sucking  milk, 
and  her  father  was  standing  over  her  with  a  whip  because 
she  did  not  drink  enough.  She  was  fattening  to  improve 
her  beauty  according  to  the  standard  which  prevails  in  that 
part  of  the  world.  Some  of  the  natives  evidently  believe 


LAND,  PEODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE. 


27 


in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Livingstone  says  he 
saw  in  one  part  a  little  hut,  near  a  grave,  and  it 
contained  a  cup  of  beer  and  a  bit  of  bread,  and  these 
were  intended  for  the  refreshment  of  the  spirit  of  the 
departed.  In  another  part  they  do  not  believe  in  the  im¬ 
mortality  of  the  soul,  and  some  of  them  have  no  religion 
at  all.  One  of  the  prominent  religions  in  Africa  is  the 
worship  of  a  stone,  a  tree,  or  some  other  object  which  the 
people  select ;  and  they  also  worship  charms.  They  believe 
in  these  charms,  thinking  they  protect  them  from  evil,  and 
they  are  often  nothing  more  than  a  bit  of  wood,  a  piece  of 
bark,  the  tail  of  a  monkey,  the  claw  of  a  parrot,  or  the 
brains  of  a  gorilla — all  these  things  are  used.  They  are 
believers  in  the  transmigration  of  the  soul,  and  think  that 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  enter  into  the  bodies  of  lions  and 
gorillas.  Spiritualism  exists  there,  and  devil-worship  is 
common  in  Africa.  If  a  person  desires  to  propitiate 
the  deity,  the  whole  village  turns  out  at  night  with 
screams,  and  torches,  and  drums,  to  drive  the  devil 
out.  There  is  also  a  notion  in  some  parts  of  Africa 
of  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  God,  for  one  of  Moffat’s 
converts  said  to  him,  when  he  was  spoken  to  about  the 
Almighty,  that  he  knew  it,  but  God  was  no  more  to  him 
than  the  lid  of  a  snuff-box.  Polygamy  exists  there  to  a 
greater  extent  than  anywhere  else.  The  king  of  Ashantee 
is  limited  to  3,333  wives — that  is  the  limit,  he  cannot  go 
beyond  that — and  all  those  wives  live  in  two  streets  in  his 
capital,  and  no  man  is  allowed  to  look  at  them,  or,  if  he 
does,  he  is  killed.  How  do  they  treat  their  aged  ?  When 
they  are  of  no  more  use  they  either  knock  them  down,  or 
sell  them,  or  carry  them  off  into  the  forests  to  be  eaten  by 


28 


LAND,  PRODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE. 


wild  beasts.  Human  life  is  of  very  little  value  in  that  land. 
Speke  says  he  gave  a  carbine,  loaded  with  ball,  to  one  chief, 
who  told  a  lad  to  go  out  and  try  it  by  shooting  a  man. 
When  he  returned,  he  said,  “  Did  you  do  it  well  ?  ”  “  Yes,” 

said  the  lad,  “  I  shot  him  dead.”  Then,  when  a  king  is 
buried,  thousands  of  men  and  women  are  sacrificed  at  his 
grave,  and  Du  Chaillu  tells  us  of  the  funeral  of  one  king, 
but  they  ate  him  first. 

Slave  hunts  are  inexpressibly  horrible.  The  Arab  hunt¬ 
ers  fall  upon  a  village  and  catch  scores  of  women  and  chil¬ 
dren.  Livingstone  says  he  saw  them  fire  upon  a  crowd  of 
people,  killing  four  hundred,  and  then  they  seized  all  the 
rest.  Baker  says  that  2,500  slave  hunters  were  employed 
by  one  firm ;  he  estimated  that  50,000  slaves  were  taken 
down  the  Nile  every  year,  and  20,000  annually  to 
Zanzibar  and  the  Persian  Gulf.  Just  think  of  it,  the 
capture  of  every  slave  costs  four  human  lives,  so  many 
perish  by  famine,  disease  and  wounds — there  are  five  vic¬ 
tims  for  one  slave,  the  slave  himself  being  one  of  them. 
Sir  Samuel  Baker  has  done  a  noble  work.  England  has 
done  a  magnificent  work — it  is  a  noble  country — I  love 
England!  The  English  minister  said  to  the  king  of  Ash- 
antee,  a  few  years  ago,  “Her  Majesty  says  the  sea  is  God’s 
highway,  and  ought  never  to  carry  a  slave  ship  on  it  ”;  and 
England  has  done  all  in  her  power  to  prevent  and  break  up 
that  horrible  trade.  Something  equally  horrible  is  canni¬ 
balism,  which  prevails  to  a  very  great  extent.  In  one  tribe 
they  eat  those  who  die  of  disease,  and  even  their 
own  relations.  Livingstone  declares  that  one  tribe  con¬ 
tains  some  of  the  most  cruel  and  blood-thirsty  savages 
he  ever  saw.  It  was  a  common  thing  for  one  of  them  to 


LAND,  PRODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE. 


29 


pluck  a  scarlet  feather  from  a  parrot  and  throw  it  on  the 
ground,  and  then  defy  anybody  to  take  it  up,  and  if  they 
did,  he  would  kill  them.  The  capacities  of  the  people,  what 
are  they  ?  Why,  they  are  capable  of  being  educated,  and 
cultivated,  and  refined,  and  made  as  happy  and  good  as  we 
are.  And  as  for  the  capacities  and  resources  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  why,  it  is  an  infinitely  productive  land,  and  we  read  of 
ivory  coasts,  and  gold  coasts,  and  we  sang  here  to-night  of 

“  Where  Afric’s  sunny  fountains 
Roll  down  their  golden  sands.” 

Ivory  and  gold  will  give  out,  but  sugar  and  cotton  will 
never  give  out,  and  the  quantity  of  these  articles  which  the 
country  is  capable  of  producing  is  beyond  computation. 

Now,  these  good  brethren  here  are  going  to  that  country 
of  Africa ;  they  are  going  simply  to  do  good — a  clergyman, 
a  physician,  and  a  teacher — to  preach  the  Gospel,  open 
hospitals,  and  establish  schools.  They  will  set  up  the 
printing  press,  they  will  preach  the  word  of  God,  and 
bring  the  people  to  a  knowledge  and  love  of  God.  There 
have  been  missions  which  have  done  a  great  deal  of  good 
in  that  country — but  at  what  a  cost  of  life !  for  a  white  man 
faints  and  dies  there  when  exposed  to  the  fierce  heat  by  day, 
the  intense  cold  at  night,  and  the  poisonous  miasma. 
Now  the  American  Missionary  Association  is  sending  out 
these  men;  they  can  stand  the  climate ;  their  forefathers 
were  born  there,  and  this  capacity  to  resist  the  climate  is 
in  their  blood.  Some  years  ago  a  slave  ship  was  overhauled 
by  a  British  vessel,  and  they  took  out  a  boy  and  sent  him 
to  Sierra  Leone.  He  was  afterwards  educated  in  England, 
and  he  is  now  Bishop  Crowther,  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  is  out  there  still. 


30 


LAND,  PRODUCTS  AND  PEOPLE. 


It  is  a  fit  thing  that  these  men  who  have  come  out  of  slavery 
here  should  go  out  and  teach  the  people  of  Africa  the  way 
to  a  higher  and  nobler  life.  We  wish  them  God-speed. 
God  bless  you !  May  the  peace  of  God  he  with  you.  May 
He  bless  you  with  long  life,  health,  and  strength,  and  make 
you  the  instruments  whereby  many  may  be  brought  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  We  shall  think  of  you,  and  read 
of  you,  and  pray  for  you.  May  you  go  forth  to  your  labors 
in  the  power  of  Jesus’  holy  name,  and  may  God,  now  and 
forever,  bless  you. 


RELATION  OF  THE  FREEDMEN  TO 
TROPICAL  AFRICA. 


REV.  GUSTAVUS  D.  PIKE,  NEW  YORK. 


Tropical  Africa  is  a  Negro  land.  God  not  only  made  of 
one  blood  all  nations  of  the  earth,  but  he  set  bounds  to 
their  habitations.  In  planning  for  missionary  work,  it  is  a 
capital  idea  to  take  notice  of  exactly  what  God  has  said. 
As  He  suspended  the  flaming  sword  over  Eden,  hostile  to 
the  intruders,  so  He  has  spanned  Tropical  Africa  with  a 
malaria,  deadly  to  the  white  man.  You  remember  that 
when  the  Germans  sent  seventeen  missionaries  to  the  west 
coast,  ten  of  them  died  in  a  single  year.  Out  of  eleven 
men  taken  by  Lieut.  Gordon  to  defend  a  fort  in  Liberia, 
eight  died  in  four  weeks.  Mungo  Park  took  forty  white 
soldiers  with  him,  but  thirty  of  them  perished  before  he 
reached  the  banks  of  the  Niger. 

The  famous  Niger  expedition  was  fitted  out  with  three 
boats  and  all  the  conveniences  the  generosity  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish  people  could  provide.  It  was  manned  by  one  hundred 
and  fifty  white  men  and  one  hundred  and  eight  negroes. 
They  proceeded  a  few  hundred  miles  up  the  river,  selected 
a  beautiful  site  for  a  model  farm,  but  speedily  all  the  whites 
were  stricken  with  fever,  and  only  one  was  sufficiently 
strong  to  navigate  their  boats  to  the  ocean ;  nearly  a  third 
of  their  number  died  in  two  months,  while  of  their  one 
hundred  and  eight  blacks  not  one  suffered  from  the  cli¬ 
mate. 


31 


32' 


RELATION  OF  THE  FREEDMEN 


These  facts,  with  many  others  of  like  character,  compel 
the  belief  that  the  fifty  or  the  hundred  millions  in  Negro- 
land  must  receive  the  “glad  tidings  of  great  joy  which  shall 
be  unto  all  people/’  from  the  negroes  themselves. 

But  what  do  American  negroes  think  of  their  relations 
to  Tropical  Africa? 

I  saw  in  a  paper  yesterday  that  sixty  thousand  blacks  in 
South  Carolina  had  given  their  names  to  an  enterprise  for 
procuring  passage  for  themselves  to  Western  Africa.  It 
was  also  stated  that  sixty  thousand  in  another  State  are 
moving  in  the  same  direction,  and  ten  thousand  in  still 
another.  Now  I  do  not  think  it  probable  that  a  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  freedmen  will  speedily  emigrate  to 
Tropical  Africa.  They  are  not  fit  to  go.  We  cannot  afford 
to  have  them  go  in  their  present  state  of  ignorance  and 
degradation.  It  would  be  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization,  a 
disgrace  to  our  Christianity.  In  South  Carolina,  only  about 
one  out  of  ten  of  the  colored  children  of  school  age  are  in 
school.  In  the  State  of  Texas,  only  about  half  as  many  as 
that.  If  we  are  rightly  informed,  in  most  of  the  colored 
churches  in  the  South,  the  ministers,  who  can  neither  read 
nor  write,  do  but  very  little  to  promote  intelligence,  morals, 
or  religion.  Indeed,  the  idea  that  morals  and  religion  should 
go  together  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  the  masses  of  the 
South.  I  repeat  that  these  people  are  neither  fit  to  return 
to  Africa  nor  to  remain  in  our  own  country  in  their  pres¬ 
ent  condition.  But,  nevertheless,  the  colored  man  has 
capacities,  which,  if  rightly  developed,  will  enable  him  to 
further  a  Christian  civilization  in  Tropical  Africa.  And  as 
God  permitted  the  Children  of  Israel  to  go  down  into  Egypt 
and  learn  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians  and  then  return 


TO  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 


33 


to  their  fatherland  to  give  us  the  Bible,  and,  through  their 
generations,  the  Lord  Jesus  himself ;  thus  I  believe  that  an 
all-wise  Providence  will  so  overrule  American  slavery  that 
the  negroes  in  our  borders  shall  learn  the  genius  of  our 
civilization  and  take  it  to  the  black  man’s  domain  until, 
from  sea  to  sea,  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  shall  abound, 
until  the  tidal  wave  of  Salvation  which  has  swept  over 
Madagascar  shall  overflow  the  vast  continent  of  Africa 
itself! 


AMERICA’S  DUTY  TO  AFRICA. 


EXTRACT  FROM  AX  ADDRESS  BY  SECRETARY  STRIEBY. 

Africa !  the  land  of  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death  ! 
A  line  of  light  once  stretched  across  the  northern  shore, 
but  now  the  pall  of  night  rests  there  again.  Missiona¬ 
ries  of  the  Cross  have  skirted  along  its  vast  borders  and 
have  lifted  that  pall ;  but  alas !  in  too  many  cases  only  to 
see  the  dense  blackness  within,  and  then  to  die! 

Africa !  the  world’s  wonder,  woe  and  shame!  “  From  the 
sole  of  the  foot  even  unto  the  head,  there  is  no  soundness 
in  it;  but  wounds  and  bruises  and  putrifying  sores,  that 
have  not  been  closed,  neither  bound  up  nor  mollified  with 
ointment,”  bearing  in  its  afflicted  body  that  direful  curse — 
the  slave-trade — in  the  pathetic  words  of  Livingstone,  “  the 
open  sore  of  the  world.” 

Has  America  any  special  duty  to  Africa?  My  rapid 
sketch  in  answer  to  this  question  will  present  a  contrast, 
a  parallel  and  a  call. 

(1.)  The  contrast  is  obvious  and  quickly  stated.  Ameri¬ 
ca  is  planted  with  migrated  races,  like  the  trees  set  out  from 
the  nursery  rows  into  the  open  orchard,  the  lawn  and  the 
park,  where  the  freest  development  and  the  richest  fruitage 
may  grow.  Africa’s  people  are  like  the  thick  jungle  and 
the  malarial  swamp  unmoved  for  ages,  unenlivened  and 
unenriched  by  migrations,  and  yielding  only  the  bitter 
fruits  of  ignorance,  superstition  and  cruelty. 

(2.)  But  there  is  a  parallel.  A  migration  once  did  enter 
and  go  forth  from  Africa.  That  little  company  of  seventy 
souls  coming  to  it  from  the  land  of  Palestine  grow  to  mil¬ 
lions.  At  length  they  learn  the  lesson  of  sorrow  in  the 


AMERICA’S  DUTY  TO  AFRICA. 


35 


house  of  bondage.  But  they  learn  also  the  wisdom  and 
catch  the  skill  of  the  most  enlightened  nation  on  earth. 
The  hour  of  their  deliverance  comes.  Amid  wonders  and 
miracles  and  the  death  of  the  first-born  of  their  oppressors, 
they  are  brought  forth.  God  has  work  and  a  destiny  for 
that  captive  race,  and  He  puts  himself  at  their  head.  In 
the  form  of  the  mysterious  Shekinah,  He  marches  before 
them : 

“  By  day  along  the  astonished  lands 
The  cloudy  pillar  glided  slow, 

By  night  Arabia’s  crimsoned  sands 
Returned  the  fiery  column’s  glow.” 

They  are  a  fickle  race,  and  sadly  lacking  in  faith,  but 
God  leaves  them  not  till  they  are  planted  in  their  own 
land.  The  Divine  purpose  at  length  appears.  On  that  stock 
thus  planted  he  engrafts  the  Branch  that  saves  the  world ! 

We  come  down  the  ages  and  another  migration  goes  forth 
from  Africa.  They  go  in  small  groups  and  at  intervals ; 
and  they  also  go  to  the  house  of  bondage.  They  learn  the 
same  sad  lessons  of  sorrow,  and  they,  too,  learn  some  of  the 
wisdom  and  catch  some  of  the  skill  of  one  of  the  most 
enterprising  nations  on  earth.  The  day  of  their  deliver¬ 
ance  also  came,  and  it  came,  too,  under  the  hand  of  the 
Almighty;  in  the  thunders  of  battle  and  in  the  death  of 
the  first-born  of  their  oppressors. 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  a  wonderful  parallel  between  these 
two  African  migrations.  Is  there  to  be  a  parallel  in  the 
outcome  ?  God  had  a  grand  purpose  for  the  first,  in  pre¬ 
paring  the  way  for  the  world’s  redemption.  Has  He  any 
for  the  second,  in  using  their  wondrous  faith,  hope  and  love, 
to  give  an  element  of  warmth  to  the  busy  and  practical 
piety  of  America,  and  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  Africa  ? 


36 


America’s  duty  to  Africa. 


(3.)  There  is  a  call,  and  the  hour  has  come.  For  thirty 
years  an  unwonted  impulse  has  been  given  to  African  ex¬ 
ploration,  and  unparalleled  success  has  crowned  it.  The 
hero  travelers  have  been  Burton,  Speke,  Baker,  Cameron, 
Livingstone,  and  last,  but  not  least,  our  own  intrepid 
American,  Stanley,  who  has  solved  Africa’s  last  great  geo¬ 
graphical  problem,  in  the  discovery  of  the  course  of  the 
Congo.  These  new  discoveries  have  aroused  the  Protestant 
world  to  renewed  missionary  efforts  in  Africa;  but  the 
great  drawback  has  been  the  hostility  of  the  natives,  and 
above  all,  the  waste  of  life  by  the  malaria  of  that  dark 
land.  In  the  midst  of  this  newly  awakened  zeal  came 
our  great  act  of  Emancipation,  setting  free  the  en¬ 
slaved  descendants  of  Africa.  The  startling  thought  has 
flashed  over  Christian  hearts  in  Europe  and  America: 
“  Here  is  a  people,  allied  to  Africa’s  millions  by  color  and 
descent,  who  may  be  welcomed  to  her  shores,  and  who  may, 
by  virtue  of  that  descent,  be  able  to  endure  the  climate,  so 
fatal  to  the  white  man.”  Is  not  the  voice  of  God  in  that 
thought;  and  shall  we  fail  to  hear  and  heed  it?  May  not 
the  American  Church  prepare  these  people  for  that  great 
work,  and  thus  hasten  on  the  Redeemer’s  kingdom,  and  at 
the  same  time  pay  back  some  of  her  great  debt  to  plundered 
Africa?  We  dragged  the  wretched  captives  across  the 
ocean  in  the  pent-up  hold  of  the  slave-ship,  and  the  waves 
heard  their  groan  and  wail  as  they  came  to  the  house  of 
their  bondage.  Shall  we  not  send  their  descendants  back, 
with  the  waves  re-echoing  their  psalm  and  prayer,  as  they 
go  to  found  empire  and  plant  a  Christian  civilization  in  the 
land  of  their  fathers  ? 


EXTRACTS  FROM  AX  ADDRESS , 


ON  THE 

MUTUAL  RELATION  OF  ENGLAND  AND 
AMERICA  TO  AFRICA. 


By  REV.  L.  D.  BEVAN,  D.D.,  OF  NEW  YORK. 


I  propose  to  show  the  peculiar  relations  which  the  great 
English-speaking  communities  hear  to  this  continent,  the 
duties  to  which  the  Christian  Church  of  this  country  and 
of  England  is  especially  called.  I  shall  endeavor  to  indi¬ 
cate  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  the  opportunities  of 
service,  the  specific  work  w,p  can  do. 

Africa  is  lined  on  every  side  by  British  colonies.  At  all 
points  of  the  coast,  except  where  the  Mohammedan  power 
is  vigorous  upon  the  North-west,  the  settlements  are  well 
established,  from  which  there  must  be  advance  towards 
the  interior.  A  dark,  heathen  people,  savage  tribes — hith¬ 
erto  only  the  hunting-grounds  for  the  slaver — are  thus  sur¬ 
rounded  by  the  most  vigorous  of  races,  keen,  enduring, 
self-reliant,  aggressive.  The  power  of  the  coast,  and  along 
the  great  rivers,  must  make  imperial  progress  towards  the 
centre.  There  can  be  no  conflict  of  other  contending  races. 
There  cannot  be  an  hour’s  stand  on  the  part  of  the  tribes 
which  will  be  thus  brought  into  subjection.  In  my  opinion, 
the  advance  of  the  English-speaking  people  will  be  blood¬ 
less.  At  any  rate  it  will  be  unstayed. 

There  are  certain  other  conditions  of  this  African  ques¬ 
tion,  which  I  will  ask  the  liberty  to  state. 

In  the  first  place,  the  slave  trade  of  Africa  is  either  dead 

37 


38  MUTUAL  RELATION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA. 

or  dying.  The  grand  obstacle  to  African  civilization  was 
this  accursed  traffic.  In  many  years  it  has  been  computed 
that  Africa  lost  a  million  of  lives  every  year  from  this  ter¬ 
rible  and  inhuman  crime.  But  the  end  of  this  evil  has 
been  almost  reached.  From  the  west  coast  of  Africa  the 
trade  has  entirely  disappeared.  In  Madagascar,  slavery  has 
been  abolished.  The  recent  treaties  of  Britain  with  Zan¬ 
zibar  have  almost  extinguished  the  traffic  in  that  country. 

It  is  perfectly  certain  that  the  growth  of  British  power, 
and  the  presence  of  English-speaking  people  upon  the 
African  continent,  will  ensure  and  sustain  the  diminution 
of  slavery,  and  the  final  extirpation  of  this  crime  every¬ 
where,  except,  perhaps,  in  the  Mohammedan  district  of  the 
north-west.  And  even  there  the  prevailing  tendency  of  the 
surrounding  neighboring  nations  cannot  fail  to  exert  some 
mitigating  influence. 

This  fact  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  relation  to  the 
civilization  and  Christianization  of  this  continent.  So  long 
as  slavery  existed,  and,  especially,  so  long  as  the  slave  trade 
kept  up  the  incessant  hostility  of  the  native  tribes,  it  was 
impossible  to  penetrate  the  interior  with  the  message  of  the 
Gospel.  The  real  hindrances  to  the  missionary’s  work 
were  not  climate,  heathenism,  and  unknown  territory ; 
they  were  the  greed  and  violence  of  men-stealers  and 
traffickers  in  human  lives  and  liberties.  The  Arab  and 
European  traders  by  whom  Africa  has  been  possessed,  were 
the  legion  of  devils  which  needed  to  be  cast  out  before 
^Ethiopia  could  be  found  “  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus, 
clothed  and  in  her  right  mind.”  These  demons  are  now  being 
exorcised.  Now  is  the  day  and  hour  for  the  Christian 
evangelist  and  teacher. 


MUTUAL  RELATION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA.  39 


A  second  point,  of  imminent,  importance  to  the  future  of 
Africa,  is  the  opening  up  of  its  exhaustless  resources  to  the 
traders  of  the  world.  The  establishment  of  the  English 
settlements  all  round  the  coast,  the  paramount  influence 
of  the  British  Government  throughout  the  continent,  will 
lay  open  the  gates  of  commerce.  Africa  is  most  richly  sup¬ 
plied  hv  nature  with  all  that  man  requires  for  support  and 
luxury.  It  is  computed  that  this  continent  alone  could 
easily  sustain  a  population  twice  as  large  as  that  which  to¬ 
day  is  found  upon  the  entire  world,  while  its  present  in¬ 
habitants  do  not  number  one-twelfth  of  that  sum.  For 
many  centuries,  therefore,  Africa  must  be  a  region  from 
which  boundless  stores  will  be  exported,  and  this  can  only 
take  place  if  a  corresponding  importation  can  be  sustained. 
It  is  to  this  latter  possibility,  as  I  am  credibly  informed  by 
testimony  of  the  very  best  kind,  viz.,  direct  and  first  hand, 
that  many  of  the  great  English  traders  are  now  looking. 
The  extension  of  manufactures,  notably  in  our  own  coun¬ 
try,  has  closed  to  the  English  manufacturer  some  of  his 
most  important  markets.  He  is  bound  to  find  new  out¬ 
goings  for  his  trade,  and  Africa  is  regarded  as  the  imme¬ 
diately  future  field  of  British  enterprise.  This  fact  adds 
to  the  assurance  that  Africa  is  presenting  a  significant  field 
for  civilization  and  Christianity,  while  the  very  evils  which 
are  concurrent  with  trade  are  a  new  and  powerful  argu¬ 
ment  for  the  earnest  endurance  of  the  Christian  Church. 

One  other  circumstance  in  the  case  which  demands  at¬ 
tention,  is  the  growing  importance  of  Africa  in  relation  to 
the  population  of  India.  Nothing  has  been  so  remarkable, 
nothing  indeed  so  startling  in  the  history  of  the  British 
rule  of  India  as  the  enormous  increase  of  the  Indian  popu- 


40  MUTUAL  RELATION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA. 

lation.  The  late  census  of  India,  the  history  of  which,  by 
the  way,  is  one  of  the  most  instructive  public  documents 
of  our  time,  revealed  the  fact  which  had  escaped  notice, 
that  the  government  of  India  by  England  was  resulting  in 
the  overpopulation  of  that  country.  Order,  justice,  good 
government,  had  resulted  in  the  preservation  of  life.  The 
cessation  of  intertribal  wars,  the  abolishment  of  infanticide, 
suttee,  and  other  customs,  which  all  tended  to  the  keeping 
down  of  population,  have  resulted  in  the  extraordinary 
growth  of  the  Indian  people.  The  very  famines,  which  in 
late  years  have  so  horrified  the  world,  and  have  called 
forth  all  the  power  of  the  imperial  government  even  to 
lessen  their  terrible  pressure,  are  partly  owing  to  the  good 
government  of  India,  which  has  preserved  and  multiplied 
the  people  beyond  the  natural  resources  of  the  land.  Such 
multiplication  must  go  on.  The  hold  of  the  British  rule 
over  India,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly  commenced,  with¬ 
out  a  question  must  continue.  And  the  problem  will  soon 
press  itself  for  solution,  what  shall  be  done  with  the  ex¬ 
cessive  millions  of  India  ?  Emigration  is  the  only  resource, 
and  when  you  ask  whither,  Africa  presents  itself  as  the 
only  country  to  which  the  peculiarities  of  race  and  climate 
and  customs  would  make  it  wise  to  encourage  Indian  emi¬ 
gration.  In  her  depopulated  countries  there  is  room  and 
life  enough  for  the  teeming  masses  of  Hindostan.  The 
air  of  Africa  will  not  smite  with  slaughter  the  delicate  organi¬ 
zation  of  the  Hindoo.  His  industry,  skill,  and  parsimony, 
would  soon  convert  the  wilderness  and  the  forest  into  a 
garden  and  a  field.  New  cities  will  rise — the  homes  of  a 
people  renewed  by  the  air  of  freedom  and  the  sense  of 
room,  which  for  centuries  they  have  lost ;  while  slowly  the 


MUTUAL  RELATION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA.  41 


African  will  be  stimulated  by  the  presence  of  the  nobler 
race — yet  not  the  race  which  has  oppressed  him  so  long — 
and  he,  too,  will  be  helped  to  rise  beneath  the  protecting 
flag  of  a  Christian  empire.  The  wealth  of  the  Indian 
merchants  has  hitherto  largely  gone  to  the  support  of  the 
African  slave  hunt.  Parsee  and  Hindoo  capitalists  have 
supplied  the  money  by  which  the  Arab  slave  hunters  have 
carried  on  their  rapacity  and  spoiling.  It  will  be  a  wonder¬ 
ful  Nemesis  if  the  human  fulness  of  India  shall  be  by  its 
outpouring  the  means  which  God  employs  to  undo  the 
mischief  of  long  ages  of  injustice  and  wrong. 

Africa’s  present  condition  and  immediate  prospect  call  for 
the  attention  of  the  Christian  Church.  No  other  country  so 
much  needs  the  Gospel.  No  other  country  is  so  ready  for  the 
Gospel.  The  brightest  triumphs  of  the  faith  of  Jesus  have 
been  among  the  people  where  there  is  no  ancient  civiliza¬ 
tion  intimately  bound  up  with  an  ancient  religion.  It  has 
achieved  great  things  in  China,  India  and  around  the 
Eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  But  here  the  Gospel 
works  slowly  along  lines  indirect  and  mediate,  its  sanctions 
being  only  by  degrees  accepted  in  social  life  and  in  politi¬ 
cal  relations.  It  permeates  rather  than  converts.  It  lays 
the  foundation  for  some  great  evangelization  when  the  old 
systems  are  ready  to  perish  and  vanish  away.  But,  else¬ 
where,  nations,  Christian  nations,  have  been  born  in  a  day. 
Where  Christianity  is  the  first  civilizer,  where  savagery  and 
where  fetichism  are  the  conditions  of  human  nature,  there 
the  Gospel  comes,  and  its  power  is  instant,  overwhelming, 
miraculous.  Thus  has  it  been  in  the  South  Seas,  thus  in 
Madagascar ;  and  in  Africa,  also,  where  it  has  directly,  and 
without  interference  with  any  form  of  civilization,  been 


42  MUTUAL  RELATION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA. 


brought  face  to  face  with  the  heathen  tribes,  it  has  achieved 
a  similar  success.  Robert  Moffat,  among  the  Bechuanes, 
has  created  a  trade,  a  civilization,  a  written  language.  In 
a  word,  he  has  made  the  beginning  of  a  civilized  people, 
and  this  by  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  this  can  be 
done  all  through  Africa.  It  must  be  done  at  once,  if  the 
greed  and  avarice  of  man  shall  not  be  allowed  to  usurp  the 
Gospel’s  place,  and  prevent  its  coming,  with  the  horrible 
vices  that  intercourse  with  civilization  introduces.  Africa 
is  now  open,  chiefly  to  the  English-speaking  people.  The 
question  of  her  future  is,  which  shall  first  lay  hold  of  these 
ignorant  and  debased  tribes?  If  religion — and  that  is  their 
only  hope — it  is  to  the  great  missionary  peoples,  and  these 
are  English-speaking,  that  religion  makes  her  appeal. 

But  there  is  a  special  reason  why  American  Christians 
should  be  roused  by  the  needs  of  the  African  continent. 
We  have  a  large  population  within  our  own  country,  half 
citizens,  half  dependents  of  the  State,  who  themselves  are  of 
African  descent.  Their  fathers  were  stolen  from  their 
homes  ;  here  they  dwelt  in  slavery.  Now  freedom  has 
come,  and,  with  freedom,  education  and  the  Gospel,  as  they 
could  not  come  to  men  still  bound.  Have  these  no  duties 
to  the  land  of  their  origin  ?  Shall  they  have  come  out  into 
liberty  and  citizenship,  and  the  blessings  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  while  their  kindred  are  still  groveling  in  the  dark¬ 
ness  of  heathen  degradation  ?  Are  not  the  words  of  Moses 
to  Gad  and  Reuben  still  echoing,  “Shall  your  brethren  go 
to  war,  and  shall  ye  sit  here  ?”  Does  not  Africa  lift  up  her 
bleeding  hands  and  cry  to  her  children  whose  dusky  coun¬ 
tenances  still  bear  the  signs  of  Afric’s  sun  ?  And  will  they 
be  regardless  when  their  mother  cries  for  help  ?  Is  there 


MUTUAL  RELATION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA.  43 


nothing  in  the  wonderful  coincidence  of  God’s  prpvidence 
that  He  opens  Africa  almost  immediately  after  He  has  set 
free,  and  humanized,  and  placed  in  Christian  ways,  the  mil¬ 
lions  of  our  own  land  who  claim  the  African  descent?  God 
tolls  the  signal  bell  but  once.  Woe  to  the  people  and  the 
generation  who  obey  not  the  call  of  God ! 

The  peculiar  fitness  of  the  freedmen  for  African  work 
needs  hardly  to  be  insisted  upon.  Nations  are  evangelized 
fully  only  by  the  preachers  who  belong  to  themselves. 
Christianity  may  be  planted  by  the  stranger  ;  it  is  only  cul¬ 
tivated  and  spread  by  those  who  are  children  and  at  home. 
Centuries  of  wickedness  have  estranged  the  African  from 
the  white  man.  If  one  of  his  own  color,  perhaps  of  his  very 
family  blood,  brings  The  Boole  for  which  already  the  fetich 
worshipper  is  longing,  thinking  it  the  secret  of  the  stranger’s 
power,  will  he  not  turn  with  a  ready  ear  to  receive  the  mes¬ 
sage  of  the  Christian  preacher  ? 

The  matter  of  health  is  one  of  great  practical  importance, 
and  experience  proves  beyond  a  doubt,  that  the  negro  of 
this  country,  if  an  inhabitant  of  the  lower  lying  regions  of 
the  land,  is  far  better  able  to  endure  the  African  climate 
than  any  white  man. 

Thus  by  race  and  consequent  natural  sympathy,  of  his¬ 
tory  and,  therefore,  pressing  impulses,  by  constitution  and 
hence  practical  fitness,  no  other  missionaries  can  evangelize 
Africa  so  well  a3  the  men  and  women  whom  we  may  find 
and  educate  among  the  freedmen  of  this  land. 

I  can  state  from  intimate  knowledge,  that  the  freedmen’s 
work  is  one  which  has  appealed  to  British  sympathy.  Al¬ 
ready  the  springs  of  British  charity  have  opened  to  our  ap¬ 
peals  for  help  from  this  side.  A  temporary  check  has  been 


44  MUTUAL  RELATION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA. 


given;  but  I  believe  that  were  it  once  clearly  demonstrated 
that  there  was  a  real,  practical  and  successful  effort  made 
here  to  supply  Africa  with  missionaries  and  teachers  from 
among  the  freedmen,  there  is  no  limit  to  the  sympathy  and 
assistance  which  England  would  render  to  this  work.  She 
feels  that  Africa  is  opening  to  her  in  various  ways. 
Her  Christian  people  are  deeply  stirred  by  the  sense  of 
their  obligation  to  that  country.  The  practical  sense  of 
England  and  especially  Scotland,  sees  immediately  the 
splendid  material  which  our  freedmen  ought  to  supply  for 
African  work.  In  no  way  would  the  Old  Country  so  bind 
herself  with  the  New — and  I  repeat,  she  is  ready  to  doit,  if 
we  only  open  the  way— as  in  common  efforts  to  win  the 
African  people  for  civilization,  and  for  Christ. 


Statistics  of  the  African  Mission. 


MISSIONARIES. 


Rev.  Floyd  Snelson, 

“  Andrew  Jackson, 

“  Albert  Miller, 
Benjamin  James,  M.  D., 


Mrs.  Floyd  Snelson, 

“  Andrew  Jackson, 
“  Albert  Miller, 

“  Benjamin  James, 


Mr.  A.  E.  White. 


NATIVE  HELPERS. 


Rev.  Geo.  N.  Jowett, 

Mr.  Samuel  H.  Goodman, 
“  James  Pickett, 


Mrs.  Lucy  During, 
Mr.  Elias  Tucker, 
“  Buel  Tucker. 


WORKERS . 15 

SCHOOLS .  3 

PUPILS  AT  GOOD  HOPE  .  125 

“  “  DEBIA .  12 

“  “  AVERY  (Estimated) .  50 

-  187 

CHURCH .  1 

CHURCH  MEMBERS .  42 


THE  AMERICAN  MISSIONARY  ASSOCIATION, 


^Statistics  of  its  Work  and  Workers— General  Summary. 

WORKERS. 

Missionaries — At  the  South,  59  ;  among  the  Indians,  3 ;  in  the 

Foreign  field,  3.  Total .  65 

Teachers— At  the  South,  134;  among  the  Chinese,  17;  among 

the  Indians,  7 ;  in  the  Foreign  field,  4.  Total .  162 

Matrons,  11  ;  in  the  Business  Department,  14.  Total .  25 

Total  number  of  Workers .  252 

CHURCHES. 

At  the  South,  59 ;  among  the  Indians,  2 ;  in  the  Foreign  field,  1. 

Total . •. .  62 

CHURCH  MEMBERS. 

At  the  South,  4,048;  among  the  Indians,  37;  in  the  Foreign 

field,  42.  Total  .  4,127 

Total  number  of  Sabbath-school  Scholars .  7,036 

SCHOOLS. 

At  the  South — Chartered  institutions,  8;  other  Institutions,  11  ; 

Common  Schools,  7.  Total .  26 

Among  the  Chinese,  11;  among  the  Indians,  5;  in  the  For¬ 
eign  field,  3.  Total .  19 

Total  number  of  Schools .  45 

PUPILS. 

At  the  South — Theological,  74;  Law,  8;  Collegiate,  79; 
Collegiate  Preparatory,  154;  Normal,  1,333;  Grammar, 

632;  Intermediate,  1,222;  Primary,  1,990;  (studying  in 

two  grades,  88).  Total .  5,404 

Among  the  Chinese,  1,155;  among  the  Indians,  287;  in  the 
Foreign  field,  116.  Total .  1,558 

Total  number  of  Pupils .  6, 962 

Scholars  in  the  South  taught  by  our  former  Pupils  estimated  at  100,000. 

*  Since  these  statistics  were  presented  at  the  annual  meeting,  nine  colored  mis¬ 
sionaries  have  been  sent  to  our  Mendi  Mission  in  Africa. 


Jtairac  jfissimtanj  Jtearmiinti, 

50  READE  STREET,  N.  Y. 


PRESIDENT. 

Hon.  E.  S.  TOBEY,  Boston. 


VICE-PRESIDENTS. 


Hon.  F.  D.  Parish,  Ohio. 

Rev.  Jonathan  Blanchard,  Ill. 
Hon.  E.  D.  Holton,  Wis. 

Hon.  William  Claflin,  Mass. 

Rev.  Stephen  Thurston,  D.U.,  Me. 
Rev.  Samuel  Harris,  D.D.,  Ct. 
Rev.  Silas  McKeen,  D.D.,  Vt. 
William  C.  Chapin,  Esq.,  R.  I. 
Rev.  W.  T.  Eustis,  Mass. 

Hon.  A.  C.  Barstow,  R.  I. 

Rev.  Thatcher  Thayer,  D.D.,  R.  I. 
Rev.  Ray  Palmer,  D.D.,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Sturtevant,  D.D.,I11. 
Rev.  W.  W.  Patton,  D.D.,  D.  C. 
Hon.  Seymour  Straight,  La. 

Rev.  D.  M.  Graham,  D.D.,  Mich. 
Horace  Hallock,  Esq.,  Mich. 

Rev.  Cyrus W.  Wallace,  D.D.,  N.H. 
Rev.  Edward  Hawes,  Ct. 

Douglas  Putnam,  Esq.,  Ohio. 

Hon.  Thaddeus  Fairbanks,  Vt. 
Samuel  D.  Porter,  Esq.,  N.  Y. 
Rev.  M.  M.  G.  Dana,  D.D.,  Minn. 
Rev.  H.  W.  Beecher,  N.  Y. 

Gen.  O.  0.  Howard,  Oregon. 

Rev.  Edward  L.  Clark, ‘N.  Y. 

J.  M.  Pinke 


Rev.  G.  F.  Magoun,  D.D.,  Iowa. 

Col.  C.  G.  Hammond,  Ill. 

Edward  Spaulding,  M.D.,  N.  H. 
David  Ripley,  Esq.,  N.  J. 

Rev.  Wm.  M.  Barbour,  D.D.,  Ct. 
Rev.  W.  L.  Gage,  Ct. 

A.  S.  Hatch,  Esq.,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Fairchild,  D.D.,  Ohio. 
Rev.  H.  A.  Stimson,  Minn. 

Rev.  J.  W.  Strong,  D.  D. ,  Minn. 
Rev.  Geo.  Thaciier,  LL.D.,  Iowa. 
Rev.  A.  L.  Stone,  D.D.,  Cal. 

Rev.  G.  H.  Atkinson,  D.D.,  Oregon. 
Rev.  J.  E.  Rankin,  D.D.,  D.  C. 

Rev.  A.  L.  Chapin,  D.D.,  Wis. 

S.  D.  Smith,  Esq.,  Mass. 

Rev.  H.  M.  Parsons,  N.  Y. 

Petek  Smith,  Esq.,  Mass. 

Dea.  John  Whiting,  Mass. 

Rev.  William  Patton,  D.  D.,  Ct. 
Hon.  J.  B.  Grinnell,  Iowa. 

Rev.  William  T.  Carr,  Ct. 

Rev.  Horace  Winslow,  Ct. 

Sir  Peter  Coats,  Scotland.  [Eng. 
Rev.  Henry  Allon,  D.D.,  London, 
William  E.  Whiting,  Esq.,  N.  Y. 
:on,  Esq.,  Mass. 


CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY, 

Rev.  M.  E.  STRIEBY,  56  Reade  Street,  V.  Y. 


DISTRICT  SECRETARIES, 

Rev.  CHARLES  L.  WOODWORTH,  Boston. 
Rev.  G.  D.  PIKE,  New  York. 

Rev.  JAMES  POWELL,  Chicago. 

EDGAR  KETCHUM,  Esq.,  Treasurer,  N.  Y. 

H.  VV.  HUBBARD,  Esq.,  Assistant  Treasurer,  N.  Y. 
Rev.  M.  E.  STRIEBY,  Recording  Secretary. 


Alonzo  S.  Ball, 

A.  S.  Barnes, 
Edward  Beecher, 
George  M.  Boynton, 
William  B.  Brown, 


executive  committee. 

Clinton  B.  Fisk, 

A.  P.  Foster, 
Augustus  E.  Graves, 
S.  B.  Halliday, 
Samuel  Holmes, 


S.  S.  Jocelyn, 
Andrew  Lester, 
Charles  L.  Mead, 
John  H.  Washburn, 
G.  B.  Willcox. 


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I 


AMERICAN  MISSIONARY  ASSOCIATION. 

No.  50  READE  STREET ,  NEW  YORK. 


LETTERS  AND  OTHER  COMMUNICATIONS 

relating  to  the  Association  should  be  addressed  to  the  Corresponding 
Secretary,  Rev.  M.  E.  Strieby,  56  Reade  Street,  New  York  City. 

DONATIONS  AND  SUBSCRIPTIONS 

may  be  sent  to  II.  W.  Hubbard,  Esq.,  56  Reade  Street,  New  York;  Rev. 
C.  L.  Woodworth,  21  Congregational  House,  Boston,  Mass.;  Rev.  James 
Powell,  112  West  Washington  Street,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Drafts  or  Checks,  sent  to  New  York,  should  be  made  payable  to  H. 
W.  Hubbard,  Assistant  Treasurer. 

MEMBERSHIP. 

A  payment  of  Thirty  Dollars,  at  one  time,  or  several  payments  to 
that  amount  within  a  year,  will  constitute  a  person  a  Life  Member. 

LEGACIES. 

Important  legacies  have  been  lost  to  the  Association  by  informality. 
Care  should  be  taken  to  give  the  full  name:  “The  American  Mission¬ 
ary  Association.”  The  following  form  of  bequest  may  be  used : 

I  bequeath  to  my  executor  [or  executors]  the  sum  of - dollars,  in  trust,  to 

pay  the  same  in -  days  after  my  decease,  to  the  person  who,  when  the  same  is 

payable,  shall  act  as  Treasurer  of  the  “American  Missionary  Association,”  New 
York  City,  to  be  applied  under  the  direction  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  that 
Association,  to  its  charitable  uses  and  purposes. 

The  Will  should  be  attested  by  three  witnesses  (in  some  States  three 
are  required;  in  other  States  only  two),  who  should  write  against  their 
names  their  places  of  residence,  (if  in  cities,  the  street  and  number).  The 
folloiviug  form  of  attestation  will  answer  for  every  State  in  the  Union: 

“Signed,  sealed,  published  and  declared  by  the  said  (A.  B.)  as  his  last  Will  and 
Testament,  in  the  presence  of  us,  who,  at  the  request  of  the  said  (A.  B.)  and  in  his 
presence,  and  in  the  presence  of  each  other,  have  hereunto  subscribed  our  names 
as  witnesses.” 

In  some  States  it  is  required  that  charitable  bequests  should  be  made  at 
least  two  months  before  the  death  of  the  testator. 


TIIE  AMEKICA1V  MISSIONARY 

is  published  monthly,  at  56  Reade  Street.  Terms,  Fifty  Cents  per  year, 
payable  in  advance. 


